Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Compared: Xiaomi Mi 4 specs versus other flagship smart phones

The Xiaomi Mi 4 was just announced
a few moments ago and it boast an upmarket design with updated
hardware. While it isn’t packing a higher resolution Quad HD display or a
newer generation of Snapdragon 805 processors, Xiaomi is calling it the
fastest smart phone yet. To see how it compares with the rest of the
Android players, we stack up the Mi 4 numbers against the OnePlus One,
LG G3, Oppo Find 7, HTC One M8, Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia
Z2.
Internally, the Mi 4 matches up with other flagship models that were
launched in the last quarter with the usual 2.5GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon
801 processor, 3GB of RAM and comes with a choice of 16GB and 64GB
storage capacity. Like its previous Mi 3 smart phone, it still lacks microSD expansion and the only exterior slot is for a micro-SIM card.

(click to enlarge>

The front display is a similar Full HD 5-incher but Xiaomi has
improved its single-handed usability by narrowing its bezels and overall
width. Compared with the other models, the Mi 4 has the smallest width
and shortest height. Thickness wise, the Mi 4 is on par with OnePlus One
and the LG G3 at 8.9mm. In terms of weight, the metal body construction
does add to the bulk, weighing in at 149 grams which surprisingly is
the same as the LG G3. Both of them are negligible 4 grams heavier than
the Galaxy S5 and HTC One E8.
In the camera department, the Mi 4 is now sporting an updated 13MP
IMX214 Sony sensor which is similarly used on the Oppo Find 7 and
OnePlus One. For taking Selfies, it gets the biggest pixel count here
with a wide angle 8MP camera.
At the time of writing, the Mi 4 is available in 3 versions – 3G
(CDMA), 3G (WCDMA) and 4G (TDD-LTE/TD-SCDMA). The Mi 4 4G model isn’t
compatible with our Malaysian 4G operators as we are using the FDD-LTE
standard. However Xiaomi promises that a FDD-LTE variant will be
introduced later this year and hopefully we won’t have to wait too long
for that to be released here. So if you’re planning to get one directly
from China, you better get the 3G WCDMA version. Read our Mi 4 announcement post for further details.
So which flagship smart phone would you go for? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.